Wild Life (game)

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Wild life
Components of the game Wild Life, Ravensburger around 1965
Components of the game Wild Life ,
Ravensburger around 1965
Game data
author Peter Ryhiner
graphic Various
publishing company Edition Carlit ,
Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH
Publishing year 1964
Art Board game
Teammates 3 to 5
Duration 30 minutes
Age from 8 years

Wild Life is a board game that was developed by the animal rights activist and catcher Peter Ryhiner in collaboration and with the support of the species protection organization World Wildlife Fund . It was first published in 1964 by the Swiss games publisher Carlit and from 1965 on by Ravensburger Spieleverlag in collaboration with Edition Carlit.

Style of play

The game Wild Life deals with species protection and the possibility of species conservation through the targeted use of animal trapping and breeding programs in zoos to preserve threatened animal species. The players take on the role of zoo owners and have to catch or buy suitable animals for their zoo worldwide. The game principle is roughly based on Monopoly , but has little in common visually with it.

In the first editions, the game material consisted of the game instructions

  • a game board on which a world map and numerous animal species are depicted,
  • 48 animal cards with species portraits, fishing costs and the value of the animals,
  • 20 transport cards,
  • 20 port cards,
  • 20 Serata cards (according to the instructions, Serata is the name of a white python in India, in whose shape the goddess Hali visits the earth every thousand years and which Peter Ryhiner discovered there and named after the Sanskrit name for "beauty"),
  • four game figures in the form of big game hunters,
  • two dice,
  • 48 transparent coverslips and
  • Play money worth 300,000 marks with the portrait of Otto Julius Maier , the founder of the Ravensburger Verlag.

The cover plates were later replaced by animal plates and 24 plastic chips were added. In addition, the Serata cards (and the Serata field) have been removed from the game.

Game preparation

Game pieces just behind the starting field

At the beginning of each game, an animal dealer or game master is appointed to monitor the course of the game, manage the cash register and sell the property. This player can either play an active role or just act as an animal dealer. The specific rules of the game are variably adapted to the different number of players. With three players, either one player can play the animal dealer and two players each buy a zoo at the start of the game or, alternatively, a zoo is removed from the game and all three players buy a zoo each. Even in a four-player game, each player acquires a zoo, but none of them have to be removed. In the five-player game, one player is an animal dealer and all other players buy a zoo at the start of the game. The game board is placed in the middle of the table and the animal dealer sorts the colored animal cards according to the different zoos and "animal dealers". He places these five stacks face up in front of him. The stacks of cards "Harbor", "Transport" and "Serata" are placed face down on the corresponding spaces on the game board. After that, each player receives a starting capital of 55,000.00. In turn the dice are rolled and each player starting with the one who rolled the highest number must buy a zoo. The different zoos have different prices:

  • Big cat and bear zoo: 15,000.00
  • Monkey and bird zoo: 10,000.00
  • Pachyderm Zoo: 1,000.00
  • Children's zoo: 2,000.00

Depending on the type of zoo purchased, each player receives a pawn and the colored cover tiles. The playing figures are placed on the starting space on the game board.

Game flow

Starting with the player who rolled the lowest number in the zoo selection, the players move in clockwise order. You have to travel around the world using a predetermined travel route on the world map, with every animal, every figure, every signet and every zoo on the map counting as a train space. The route goes counterclockwise first to Madagascar , then to Africa , South America , North America , Australia , the islands of Oceania and Southeast Asia and South Asia . It leads back to the starting field via India and Sri Lanka . Whenever a player comes across the starting field, he receives 2,000.00 from the cash register, and if he comes exactly on this field he receives 4,000.00. The active player rolls both dice and is allowed to advance the number rolled.

The player can reach different fields:

  • Whenever a player comes onto an animal space, he may buy the corresponding animal card. The price is indicated on the respective cards as fishing costs. The players are allowed to purchase cards for their own zoo as well as cards for trading. As soon as they pay the fishing costs, they put the cards face up in front of them.
  • When a player reaches an animal dealer space (human), he may buy an animal species of his choice from the animal dealer's supply at full price (value). Then there is a public auction in which the animal dealer offers the topmost of the animal dealer pile with the catch costs as a minimum bid; the player with the highest bid receives the card.
Event cards "Harbor", "Transport" and "Serata"
  • If a player comes to one of the event spaces “Harbor” (lighthouse) or “Transport” (ship), he must draw a corresponding card and follow the instructions.
  • If he comes to the “Serata” square in India, he draws two cards.

In addition, any player who gets a Pasch throws a "Serata" card and can then draw his figure.

  • If a player comes to the "island of extinct animals", he must suspend two rounds there. This island is the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean , where the dodo lived and was exterminated within a very short time after its discovery .
  • If a player comes to Yellowstone National Park , he is punished for feeding bears with sugar and placed on the "island of extinct animals", where he has to skip a round.
Zoo shelf; The winner is the player who first owns all 12 animals in his zoo.

If a player passes the field of his own zoo, he can place the animal cards acquired up to that point there and then move on. To do this, he places the colored cover tiles on the spaces of the animal species whose cards he has in front of him and puts the cards aside. If the player comes to a strange zoo, he must stop there; the rest of the dice expire. If he has animal cards with him, he has to pay the zoo owner accommodation and food costs for each animal:

  • In the big cat and bear zoo: 200, -
  • In the monkey and bird zoo: 300, -
  • In the pachyderm zoo: 400, -
  • In the children's zoo: 400, -

If the zoo is already filled with more than half of the animal species required, the visitor has to pay double the sum. However, the player may also offer animals for sale to the zoo owner and does not have to pay any accommodation costs for animals sold. In principle, players are always allowed to negotiate the exchange, purchase and sale of animals when a player is in the zoo. Once a buyer offers the full value of an animal card, the owner must sell it to them.

As soon as all animal cards of the four zoo types (without the animal dealer cards) have been sold, the animal dealer may, after consultation with the other players, pay out a one-time subsidy of 10,000 to each player. If a player runs out of money and is insolvent, he must sell the animal dealer as many of his animal cards at half their value as are required to pay outstanding bills. The cards are placed on the animal dealer pile and can later be sold or auctioned by the animal dealer.

The game ends when a player has succeeded in populating all 12 fields of his zoo. This player is the winner of the game and the other players can either continue playing or distribute the runners-up based on the empty spaces in the zoo.

Changes in later editions

In later editions of the game, some details of the game were changed while maintaining the basic principle. The starting field was moved to the city of Morges as the headquarters of WWF and the route first leads to Iceland and Greenland , the Serata field in India with the Serata maps has been removed and replaced with a panda field in China. The transparent cover plates were replaced by picture plates.

In this game, three variants of the game were also described: one for children, one normal and one for "masters".

Standard variant

The standard variant is essentially the same as the original game. As there, all players must choose a zoo at the start of the game, but the amount of the starting capital now depends on the zoo type:

  • Children's zoo: 80,000
  • Monkey and bird zoo: 70,000.00
  • Pachyderm and reptile zoo: 60,000.00
  • Big cat and bear zoo: 55,000.00
The giant panda will play a special role in later editions: In order to reach it, players have to take a clear detour from their route.

Starting with the owner of the children's zoo, the players roll the dice and move their figures along the travel route, where they also meet different fields here:

  • In an animal field you can buy the depicted animal species for the fishing costs.
  • On an animal field where no animal can be bought anymore, the player can buy a chip in the color of his zoo for 2,000 and place it on the field. The next player who visits this field must sell the chip owner an animal at the cost of the catch or, if he does not have a corresponding animal, pay 1,000.00.
  • On a harbor space and a transport space, the players must pick up the top card of the corresponding pile and carry it out.
  • The panda field can only be reached via a detour: The player who wants to catch the panda must end his turn in Shanghai and let the remaining dice expire. In the next field he can only reach the panda with an odd roll of the dice and in the next round he can only advance with an even roll of the dice.
  • Animal dealer fields have no meaning in this version.
  • If a player passes the starting field, he receives 2,000 and the top animal card that matches his zoo; If he stays on the starting field, he receives a research grant in addition to the animal card in the amount of a die roll with a die * 1,000.00.

Visiting your own or someone else's zoo is treated in the same way as in the original version, but the amount to be paid per animal for accommodation and food is generally 300 or 600, regardless of the zoo type. Here, too, the visitor and the zoo owner are allowed to trade and exchange with their animals. The rest of the rules are the same as in the original version of the game.

Variation for children

In the variant for children, there is no money or event cards. At the start of the game, the children roll the dice and choose their zoos in the order of their numbers. Then you roll the dice in turn and always move forward according to the number of points. If they land on a port or transport space, they may roll again. If the players come across an animal, they get it without payment. When visiting a foreign zoo, you can exchange cards with the zoo owner and in your own zoo you can cover the animals whose cards you have. Whenever a player comes across the starting field, he gets the top animal card, and if he lands on the field, even two cards from the stack. If a player comes to a field whose species has already been taken, he places a chip in the color of his zoo there. The next player on the field must give the owner of the chip an animal from his display.

Variation for "master"

The variant for "master" is essentially the same as the standard variant, but the animal dealer fields in the cities of Asunción , Dakar , Hyderabad and Sydney are added. The player who reaches this first can buy it and fill it with a white chip. Each player can only own one animal dealer station. If a player comes to the station, the owner of the station can sell him a desired animal (with the exception of the panda) from the respective region at a fixed price:

  • Asunción: 10,000.00; North and South America region
  • Dakar: 15,000.00; Africa and Madagascar region
  • Hyderabad: 10,000.00; Region of India, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Jawa, Komodo and Siberia
  • Sidney: 10,000.00; Australia, New Guinea and Borneo region

The income for the trade goes to the owner of the station, all other rules correspond to the standard version.

Expenses and reception

The game Wild Life was developed by the Swiss animal catcher Peter Ryhiner and published in 1964 by the Swiss game publisher Carlit (now part of the Ravensburger Group as a brand) with the support of the species protection organization World Wildlife Fund . From 1965 it was published by Ravensburger Spieleverlag in collaboration with Edition Carlitt.

The first editions of the game contain a foreword from the World Wildlife Fund, which was signed by the then President of the Bundestag, Eugen Gerstenmaier , the WWF chairman Bernhard Grzimek and the two deputy chairmen Walter Gerling and Albert Löhr . It is linked to the recommendation of the “Nature in Danger” campaign by the WWF and declares that part of the sales proceeds from the game will be donated to the foundation. In addition, buyers are encouraged to support the “Nature in Danger” campaign with a donation.

The game critic Eugen Oker described the game in a review in the newspaper Die Zeit on October 29, 1965 together with the picture lottery game Ein Platz für Tiere, published by Bernhard Grzimek in Verlag Verlag IW Spear & Sons, as an "excellent game", although the appeal for donations annoyed him . He described the game as very mixed:

“Wild Life” is the pretty thoroughbred baby of the “Monopoly” family with a round trip, event cards and a lot of money. […] First, the participants acquire one of the four zoos in the corners of the game board. The prices fluctuate somewhat unrealistic between one and fifteen thousand marks. But this is a trap: the most expensive animals belong to the cheap zoo! [...] In the late part of the game, the continents seem to be devoid of animals: "Wild Life" no longer takes place. In its place comes bare trade: distress sales to animal dealers, auctions. The last animals to fill the zoo are hard to come by; Lack of money and envy of competition make the animal catcher rotate around the globe. But sometimes it is also the other way around: someone drags a full-grown rhinoceros around the globe several times before getting rid of it. "

- Eugen Oker, 1965

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Official rules of the game for Wild Life , German version around 1965.
  2. ↑ a b Eugen Oker : A place for animals. Die Zeit , October 29, 1965; accessed on March 17, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Official Game Rules for Wild Life , German version from 1975.
  4. ↑ Versions of Wild Life in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on March 17, 2017.
  5. ^ Foreword in the rules of the game for Wild Life , German version around 1965.

Web links